Imran Khan’s arrest was deemed “unlawful” by the Supreme Court the day before the action was taken.
Imran Khan, a former prime minister of Pakistan, was given a two-week bail by the Islamabad High Court on Friday after the embattled official was arrested on suspicion of corruption, sparking widespread demonstrations.
The ex-prime minister, who has been involved in scores of legal disputes, including at least three connected to fraud scandals, has also been ordered by the court not to be detained until at least May 17.
The action was taken the day after Pakistan’s Supreme Court declared Khan’s arrest to be “invalid and unlawful.” On instructions from the National Accountability Bureau, an anti-corruption authority, the former prime minister, who is the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, was arrested earlier this week.
Khan asserted at the time that he had been “abducted” by the government without cause. He said, “It seems as though there was a law of the jungle.”
Khan was detained in connection with the so-called Al-Qadir Trust case, which centered on an alleged quid pro quo arrangement in which the politician and his wife allegedly received land valued at millions of dollars from a real estate tycoon during the establishment of a university bearing their names.
However, Khan told reporters that he was concerned that his adversaries would come up with yet another justification “to pick him up again,” adding that “they will arrest me again because they will just come up with another case.”
Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, commented on the judicial drama and claimed that the court’s “double standards” were to blame for the death of justice in the nation. Although the bail ruling was “unprecedented,” Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah stated that “court orders will not be violated.”
At least 11 people have died and numerous others have been hurt as a result of the widespread protests that Khan’s arrest prompted around the nation. Over 3,000 protesters have been taken into custody by the police overall.
The opposition charged Khan, a former professional cricket player who was elected prime minister in 2018, with economic mismanagement, and he was removed from office in a vote of no-confidence in 2022.
However, at the time, the ex-PM asserted that he was overthrown by a US-led “international conspiracy.”
